The present invention relates to a control dial for controlling reproduction operation of an optical disk apparatus and an optical disk apparatus having the control dial.
There are optical disk apparatus which are provided with a control dial which include a jog dial and a shuttle dial which are used for editing video data or the like. For example, one of such apparatus is disclosed in JPA No.11-111118.
Generally, in this control dial, its jog dial and shuttle dial are arranged coaxially with concentrical axes of rotation. Further, its control dial in which its shuttle dial is arranged externally outside the periphery of its jog dial is provided on a front panel of the optical disk apparatus.
Directions of traverse of an optical pickup, which traces tracks on an optical disk in search of information for reproduction, can be changed by changing a direction of rotation of the shuttle dial. The optical disk apparatus can execute a rapid forward or reverse direction search. By changing angles of rotation of the shuttle dial, a speed of traverse of the optical pickup over the tracks can be expedited such that the optical disk apparatus reaches faster in the vicinity of a target position which is being searched for its reproduction.
The jog dial has a dent which is provided on its upper surface at a position offset from the center thereof for allowing the user to rotate the jog dial by placing his/her forefinger in this dent.
When the jog dial is rotated, a pulse is output from a rotary encoder, which is connected with the jog dial. The optical pick up is moved in response to the number of pulses, for example, at a rate of one frame per pulse, to search a position of the target of recorded information which is to be reproduced. Although its speed of search is slower than the speed of search by the shuttle dial, it can search more precisely the position of the target of the recorded information, which is to be reproduced.
Therefore, by combination of the both advantages of the shuttle dial and the jog dial, the position of the recorded information to be reproduced can be searched faster and more precisely.
In the above-mentioned optical disk apparatus provided with the shuttle dial and the jog dial, when rotating its jog dial by placing the forefinger on the dent thereof in order to determine the position of the target of recorded information to be reproduced, there often occurs an excess movement of the jog dial, thereby taking too much time in searching of the precise position of the target to be reproduced.
Further, because the position of the dent thereof is not always at a preferred position, which is easy for the forefinger to operate, operability thereof is often impaired.
Therefore, it is contemplated to control the jog dial first by resting the wrist of the user on a control panel board in the vicinity of the jog dial thereby limiting motion of the wrist, then by adjusting the jog dial exclusively by motion of the forefinger which is placed at a peripheral corner of the upper surface of the jog dial, thereby enabling a rapid and precise searching of the position of the target of the recorded information to be reproduced.
However, there occurs such a problem that when the jog dial is operated by the forefinger that is placed at the peripheral corner of the upper surface of the jog dial, the forefinger easily makes contact also with the shuttle dial which is arranged outside the jog dial in proximity thereof thereby unintentionally moving the shuttle dial together with the jog dial, and thereby rendering it difficult to achieve a faster and precise positioning of the optical pickup at the position of the target of recorded information which is desired to be reproduced.
The present invention is contemplated to solve the above-mentioned problems associated with the prior art.
An object of the present invention is to provide for an optical disk apparatus which features a unique structure of a control dial which ensures for its jog dial to be adjusted by motion of the forefinger of the user without touching the shuttle dial which is disposed outside the jog dial and in proximity thereof thereby eliminating erroneous motion thereof, and also ensures that a faster and precise positioning is achieved for its optical pickup at the position of a target of recorded information to be reproduced.